Turkish Red Lentil Soup with Urfa-Biber Mint Sizzle

I know, I know, I am posting too many recipes which call for urfa-biber lately. I am almost at the point where I will have to offer to mail a package of urfa-biber to anyone who wants it and has something interesting to swap for it.

I like to make my croutons in a pan on the stove, because they inevitably burn when I try making them in the oven instead. I just pour a bit of olive oil into a pan and stir-fry cubes of stale bread until they are nice and toasty, sprinkling a bit of salt and freshly ground black pepper on them along the way. This works well, and I must say, the croutons (and the sizzle) make this soup for me.

In the end, we created a crispety, crunchety, spicy, meaty soup, which is satisfying enough to be a meal in itself.

In 1 tbsp butter, saute the garlic and curry leaves. Add the lentils and rice. Stir to coat, then add 6 C water and the tomato paste and simmer, covered, for 45 minutes.

Lightly brown the onion in a scant tbsp butter. Remove them from the pan and set aside, then sear the chicken until lovely and brown on all sides.

Make a roux of 2 tbsp flour with 2 tbsp butter. Slowly (this is important) add 2 C chicken stock. Add roux/stock to the rest of the soup and whisk until smooth.

Stir in the onions and chicken.

Cut the stale bread into cubes and fry in a bit of olive oil with salt and pepper in a pan, stirring occasionally, until they become croutons. You want at least 2 C croutons, really.

Make the sizzle by melting 1 tbsp butter, then stirring in the urfa-biber and spearmint. (You can substitute any other ground chili if need be; it will change the flavor of the soup, but probably in an interesting and pleasant way.)

Swirl in a bit of the sizzle and thrown in some croutons when serving.